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Old 03-08-2006 | 04:26 PM
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rickair7777
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From: Engines Turn or People Swim
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Originally Posted by WEACLRS
Rick - can you take a stab at whether you think they had PIC experience (capt's) or were FO's that wanted to move to a jet?

We do get a number of FO's at Colgan that stay for a few months and then get hired at an RJ carrier. The ones that are under 22 I can't blame - they might as well go and sit in a jet until they can upgrade - second year pay is better. But I try to talk the older ones out of it because turbine PIC time is so important and our upgrades have been fairly quick. I hope I'm not doing them a disservice.

That said we've also had a few "marginal" guys (for lack of a better term) that I think get nervous with the short upgrade times here and they jump ship...only to run square into their piloting weakness at the next stop. I can think of two that went ExpressJet. One I know didn't make it (he wanted me to recommend him back into Colgan) and I sure hope the other has found another career.
It seems to be always prop captains going to jet CA or FO, probably because it's hard to stay in turboprops for long without upgrading. I don't think it could be a pilot quality thing, initial aircaft assignments are random.
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